Like this:

built a simple prototype database in the first hour or so of my dialysis treatment this afternoon…so built one hand ed in Microsoft Access 2007….to hold information for an archaeology/heritage inventory for townships in Simcoe County.

I am the “long” guy on my dialysis shift, four and a half hours. Most patients have their blood cleaned and excess fluid removed for 3.5 to 4 hours. I go three afternoons per week. I Started dialysis in November of 2008. Dialysis patients sit in a chair that resembles an easyboy recliner. Patients are given access to individual small television sets with earphones. Some watch TV, some read, some nap. I use my laptop a couple of times per week.

I dug in on this after a presentation last night to the heritage committee of Springwater Township. Jamie Hunter, curator of the Huronia Museum, and me, a member of the Huronia Chapter of the Ontario Archaeological Society and a semi-retiredtechnical writer and Access Database systems analyst ( that is a little bit puffed up but not too outrageously), made the presentation which I had built in Powerpoint. The two of us did wel and the committee seemed sold on the idea of gathering this information about First Nations archaeological sites, early Euro-Canadian properties and still-standing heritage buildings. A lot of information has been recorded but it is somewhat scattered. A database is a good way to gather and share this information.

I am a little rusty in Access and need to brush up on a few things like one to many relationship table linkage. Today I built a primary table, one query, one online entry form, and two reports…..with a single test record.

I screen captured the form and the one columnar report and placed them in the revised Powerpoint slide show for use with the next township heritage committee.

It is always best to have a specific project to achieve when trying to learn or relearn software.